Daniel Hartmann
Bo Naylor, the former Cleveland Guardians catcher, took the witness stand in a New York courtroom on Thursday, November 5, 2026, and told jurors that nothing about the pitches Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz are accused of fixing for bettors had struck him as odd, ESPN reported.
Naylor, who now plays for the Milwaukee Brewers, testified as a defense witness on the second day of testimony. He added that until the case drew public attention, he had no idea sportsbooks took wagers on the outcome or velocity of individual pitches.
How the Defense Described the Pitches
Prosecutors showed Naylor video of pitches they say were chosen in advance. He had been behind the plate for many of them and called them ordinary sliders that missed the strike zone. Scouting reports on the hitters Ortiz faced for the two pitches in question, Naylor said, pointed to sliders down and away as an effective pitch.
Naylor caught 14 of Ortiz's 16 starts in 2025, among them the June 27 game against the St. Louis Cardinals — one of two games in which Ortiz is alleged to have rigged a pitch. The government claims Ortiz deliberately threw a ball to Pedro Pages on the first pitch of the bottom of the third inning.
Naylor also caught seven of the 18 pitches Clase is accused of rigging, spread across 17 games between May 19, 2023 and May 28, 2025. None of them stood out to him, he told the court.
Prosecution Witnesses
Naylor conceded that passing information to anyone outside the team would amount to a betrayal. Even so, he said, he never suspected either pitcher of breaking that trust.
Later Thursday, government witness Edward Canario testified through an interpreter that he used information from co-defendant Luis Arismendy Paca Mendez to bet on Clase's pitches in May and June 2023. Canario said he faces a charge of betting on inside information and has signed a cooperation agreement that could earn him leniency.
He testified that he gave Paca Mendez half his winnings while absorbing all the losses himself. Betting records shown in court indicate he wagered as much as $600 on single bets, some of them on Clase pitches coming in slower than 94.5 mph or ending in a ball or a hit batter.
Joel Trella, who directs DraftKings' special investigations unit, told the court the sportsbook logged 160 geolocation pings from accounts used at Clase's home. A government attorney said 14 people were geolocated at that address.
Where the Trial Stands
Clase and Ortiz were indicted in November 2025 on charges of conspiracy to commit wire and honest services fraud, sports bribery and money laundering. Both entered not guilty pleas.
Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto said the trial is expected to last until December 3. Paca Mendez is not taking part in the trial; he was extradited from the Dominican Republic on October 19.
Our report on how the Clase and Ortiz trial opened over pitch-rigging bets covers the charges and the start of jury selection.
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